The aftermath of a Syrian Air Force strike on the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus. Photo Credit: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Living in a void : life in Damascus after the exodus

Article in The Guardian

25 août 2017

An excellent article about those who stay home and receive news of those who have gone abroad. Many thanks to Raoul

« I would like to say something along the lines of how the refugees are Syria’s loss and the world’s gain, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Abandoning one’s identity is like ripping a heart out of a body. I think of the families of friends who have migrated en masse. For example, I received a phone call from the father of a friend, a man over 70 years old, who spoke to me in tears. He just wanted to speak to someone who understood his language, who understood the secrets of the language, who would listen to a joke in his version of colloquial Syrian and who would have a hearty laugh with him. A hearty laugh – that’s a metaphor for the way people like to live, and refugees in general do not find many reasons to laugh, especially in their first years in exile. But not long after that conversation, the phones stopped ringing. Everyone had dropped into the black hole of exile. »